Publisher William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C., importing an idea he'd encountered from a British scout who refused payment for a good deed.

Pilot Eugene Ely flew a Curtiss biplane off a wooden platform built on the cruiser USS Birmingham, launching the era of naval aviation.

Francisco Madero's call to arms against dictator Porfirio Díaz took effect, igniting the Mexican Revolution, a decade-long upheaval that would remake Mexican society and claim over a million lives.